The Fregenet Foundation

Student Uniform Distribution at Fregenet SChool

The Fregenet Foundation
2024 Honoree of Pagume Ethiopian Entertainment and Cultural Center
September 20, 2024

Dear Friends and Supporters,

On September 7, 2024, Mr. Tafesse Woubshet and Mrs. Elizabeth Asrat, founders of the Fregenet Foundation, were honored with an achievement award by the Pagume Ethiopian Entertainment and Cultural Center, an organization dedicated in giving recognition to people who make life changing contributions to various aspects of the Ethiopian society. It is an organization based in Los Angeles, USA. This is the 6th annual award ceremony for the organization.

The event, which took place at the Hilton Garden Inn in El Segundo, California, featured five other distinguished honorees from various walks of life. These included, people from academia, entertainment, journalism, and nonprofit organizations to include FKL. It was an enjoyable and successful event attended by members of the Ethiopian community as well as friends and supporters of the Fregenet Foundation. This, well-deserved recognition, highlighted 20 years of dedicated community service by the Foundation which runs its operation from the Los Angeles office and The Fregenet Kidan Lehitsanat School in Addis Ababa. FKL prides itself as being one of the few in the country committed to providing free education for children who come from underprivileged backgrounds. As such, the Foundation has successfully educated hundreds of children and fully covered the cost for education, food, clothing, and stationery.

With the plan to expand its operation to other parts of Ethiopia, The FKL built a state-of-the-art elementary school in Bishoftu which is now fully operational. The organization is currently, in the process of upgrading the facility in Addis Ababa. This modern, state of the art, facility is expected to be completed in the coming few years.

The Fregenet Foundation is honored to have been recognized with this award. It is not just a recognition of its years of dedicated service, but also serves as an encouragement and moral boost in its commitment to expand and deepen its operations and continue to help this underserved community.

We sincerely thank the Pagume Association for their recognition. We take this auspicious moment to extend our thanks to all our esteemed supporters in Ethiopia, the USA, and around the world. This award and recognition belong to them as well, as it would not have been possible without their unreserved support over the last two decades.

We thank all of you and kindly ask that you continue your association with us and support the Foundation and the school in any way you can.

The Fregenet Foundation

2024 Graduation festivity at Fregenet School

July 25, 2024

Dear Friends and Supporters,

As expected, on July 6, 2024, Fregenet Kidan Lehitsanat School’s 2023-2024 academic year has come to a splendid conclusion. Addis Ababa’s rainy morning did not deter the excitement and follow-up celebration of the end of this school year.

The festivity, which was held at the school compound, began at 10:00 in the morning and was over around 1:30 in the afternoon. Attendees included students, teachers and staff of the school, parents, and family members, as well as invited guests to included board members and supporters of the foundation.

The festivities began with the national anthem followed by traditional music and dances representing various regions of the country, colorfully presented by our graduating students. A joy all to itself.

This was followed with the local board representatives’ presentation of a detailed report on activities, accomplishments, and future plans. The school director, who was acting as master of ceremony, along with the former manager of the school, enriched the report with an impressive account of the school’s history, development trajectory, and plans for a bright future. A truly inspiring account of our journey.

As we have done in the past, one of the highlights of the occasion was a presentation by an alumnus of FKL. One of this attending alumni was Iyob Elias, a graduate of the first batch (2004), who joined Fregenet at the age of four. Iyob, who received his architecture degree from Gondar University shared an inspiring story of his and his colleagues' memoirs of their time at Fregenet. In addition, he was also kind enough to give his artwork on canvas to the school official. It is, indeed, a wonderful thing to see our mission is being realized. We are making a difference.

This year, a total of 22 students graduated on July 6, 2024. At the end of the program, lunch prepared by the families of our students, as well as, local breads, cookies, cakes, and other refreshments brought by our esteemed supporters, were served.

We take this auspicious moment to warmly congratulate the class of 2024 and wish them a restful break over the summer and all the very best in the upcoming academic year.

To our supporters, we thank you for your continued support and contributions.

Sincerely,

The Fregenet Foundation

Empowering Ethiopia's Future 🌟

From education to health, we're breaking barriers and building leaders. With your support, we've opened two schools and now we're gearing up for our next milestone: a state-of-the-art building in Addis Ababa. Here’s a link to our donation. https://gogetfunding.com/?p=8514106

Together, we're making strides towards a brighter, more inclusive future for all.

Help Bring Education to Impoverished Children in Ethiopia Hi, Thank you for taking the time to learn about Fregenet’s story and considering supporting our cause. As an American citizen of Ethiopian descent, Fregenet Tafesse Woubshet was a 29-year-old with one lifelong dream: to support her family in Ethiopia and eventually support the education of al

New School Building at the New Campus

April 10, 2024

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Calendar year 2024 has seen one of the most encouraging signs of accomplishments in the Foundation’s schedule of activities. The last few months have shown us how a successful institution builds from the grassroots level. This, we believe, is the basis for a sustainable and impactful intervention of an empowered community, and the resulting meaningful transformation of lives.

Following our fruitful, albeit years-long, discussions with Addis Ababa city authorities, we were, finally, granted a plot of land for the expansion of our school. The Foundation, with the participation of all stake holders and contributions from local members, leaders, and partners, was ready to engage in the construction of a temporary structure, inside the newly acquired land, to house students from the old Fregenet Kidan Lehetsanat School rental facility.

Around the beginning of October 2023, we approached engineer Yosef Atle to manage and lead the construction of this temporary school building on a pro bono basis. He accepted the proposal with the understanding that the foundation will buy the materials and pay for labor. Engineer Yosef modified the original plan, changed the construction materials as appropriate, fundraised cash, and in-kind donations threefold, above our original budget to cover the added cost, worked from dusk to dawn and completed the construction. This accomplishment was beyond our expectation in both quality of work and time allotted for the project. This is, indeed, taking the foundations vision to a higher level.

With the leading role of Engineer Yosef, his friend Abiy (the architect) and of course Ato Girma Seifu Maru, the resource mobilizer, Serwe Girma and his SIMBA cleaning services company crew, Engineer Tsedeke Yihune and his Flintstone Engineering staff, Hailemariam Moges, the vice chair of the local board, have proved to be irreplaceable and staunch supporters of Fregenet Foundation. They have become active partners of our dreams and visions of the future. Our sincere appreciation and gratitude go to them. We are proud and honored to have such friends who show such high-level commitment to the cause and are able to deliver.

The construction of this temporary housing took only five months, and our students were able to move in February 2024, around the beginning of the second school semester, as planned. Even though the building is a temporary housing, it will be their home for the next five years and beyond, while the permanent structure is under construction. This gives students and teachers space to continue the teaching-learning process without interruption.

What remains now is, within in a month or two, to handover the old rental facility back to the owners and reallocate the rental payment line-item budget to other, more essential expenditures. At this point in time, the foundation and the local board would like to take this opportunity to express their immense gratitude to Ato Fekade Abebe and his family, the owners of the rental facility, which served our students and the community for more than eighteen years. Ato Fekade was kind enough to accommodate the renewal of the lease, with reasonable rental increments, which allowed us to continue using the facility without any interruption. With this huge contribution, Ato Fekade has his own fingerprints in the school’s history and progress. We will always be grateful for that.

In the meantime, we have begun exploring fund raising opportunities in earnest to collect the finances needed to build this permanent school facility which is slated to be a state-of-the-art school facility in one of the most underserviced parts of the city. The Foundation is using this opportunity to reach out to its partners and supporters to continue their assistance in any way they can and help us achieve this important and undoubtedly life-transforming project.

We sincerely thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Fregenet Foundation

Have you ever had to worry about your access to education? Today, you could help those who do. Every dollar counts.

Donate – The Fregenet Foundation

Inspiring story about Ethiopian girls being rescued from child marriage through education❤️

“I get married because my mother is poor” As child marriage threatens girls' futures in Ethiopia, social workers come to the rescue

Every year we support underserved children in our community through education. But did you know we also support them through food, health check ups for our students and their families, and provide adults in the community with jobs?

Already missing this - can't wait for next year at the Fregenet Foundation!